After watching the 1st episode, I was convinced that 20 Faces was the most annoying male character ever to exist. I hated him for acting smart, always smiling and his huge eyebrows. I swore that I would never ever come to like him or this anime. Well, I take that all back now. Don't be scared off by the 1st episode. I recommend this to all seinen fans who like a solid, intelligent plot alongside the action and adventure. And who doesn't want to see a 13-year-old girl (literally) kick ass?

Story
It seemed pretty ordinary and bland at first. Just another silly phantom thief story, how good can it get? Well, pretty good. Although I often feel that the story doesn't develop well enough (probably because this is an adaptation of the manga), it has its high points. It's creative with a good helping of twists and surprises that adventure stories have. I like how it managed to incorporate fantasy into more realistic situations.

One of the flaws of this anime is that the story takes a totally different direction after the beginning. For the first 7 or so episodes, the story doesn't really go anywhere. Then all of a sudden, something HUGE (yes, very HUGE) comes up and much of what has been built up on before just collapses. I found it sort of weird, but the story after that really begins to develop. The second flaw is that somtimes the action stops when you most want it to keep building up, another symptom of anime adapted from manga. But for me, the good stuff just shines through all the flaws. Except maybe for the epilogue. That was like a total waste of one episode.

Characters
Chiko, the main character is awesome. She's very inspiring, and I really like her personality. I especially liked how she bonds with her friend Shunka, and her housekeeper Tome. It's the little things that matter to me when it comes to characters, and it was really nice to see that everyone, even the minor characters had a unique personality and background. 20 Faces seems ok afterwards too.

Even the villains are likeable, because either they have perfectly acceptable reasons to be evil, or they're just plain cool. The 'white hair demon' is the best! And there's no 'I want to take over the world!' type of rubbish.

This could be a 10 if there was more development of the relationships between Chiko and the people close to her, but this is an adventure story, so it's all about the heroes and heroines, and not anyone else. Overall, there's a nice mix of interesting characters, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses which makes them human.

Animation
I'm not picky about this, so I gave it a pretty high score. I liked how a dark feeling is created by the shadows when images of war are animated. Overall, it's not really unique because there isn't anything unique to animate.

Sound
A strong cast of voice actors, a couple of them are my favourites. There is Aya Hirano (we all know about her), Rina Satou (Negi Springfield in Negima and Haruka in Minami-ke), Atsuko Tanaka (Motoko from GitS, she is my absolute fav), Miyuki Sawashiro (Shinku in Rozen Maiden). I think everyone did a great job.

I don't remember much from the background music, what I do remember is I especially liked one of the piano soundtracks. The opening song by Miroku 369 (I've never heard of them before this) is addictive, and sad.

Value
I'll definitely rewatch this sometime during the holidays. And I would buy it if I was twice as rich as I am now.

Enjoyment
I totally enjoyed watching this! Exactly the kind of thing that would make me relax after a long day of school.